Hey yall, I'm pretty new to the profession and need some advice about a little
situation I had a few weeks ago. Any kind of "you should have done this" or
"try this next time" would be much appreciated by this newbie. Thanks!
I've been bartending for about 3 months at a small private yacht club near
Boston and had my first real "situation" the other night...July 4th as it
turns out. It was about 11:30 p.m. and the dining room was all closed up, I
was just cleaning up behind the bar. The manager's husband came in with a
friend and they sat down at the bar, even though the lights were down and I
was putting everything away. They ordered drinks and I figured what the hell,
I'll be here for a while anyway. But after a few minutes of chatting I could
tell these two were pretty loaded and I began to second guess giving them
those drinks. But then again, I wasn't sure how well shutting off the
manager's husband would go over. After about 15 minutes, the friend spills his
beer across the bar and immediately calls for a new one (as if I didn't see
the bottle fly off the bar already).....so I just nodded and went about my
cleaning up duties hoping he was a little too gone and would forget about it.
But he didn't and after a few minutes he started getting a little mouthy. So I
apologized and said I had forgotten and got him a new one.
The manager then came in and I told her what the deal was, but she just said
not to worry about serving them because she would be driving the friend back
home anyway. So I was a little relieved but the friend then starting getting
real mouthy...saying things like I can't make drinks right and I'm just a
sissy kid (I'm 22) who doesnt know what he's doing, etc.. He was talking about
coming behind the bar and making his own drinks, and if I didn't like it he
would "beat the __ out of me" and the husband just sat there laughing. The guy
wanted to put up money to fight me at one point. So I just went along and
laughed with him, trying not to provoke him at all (even though he made me
look like a big wuss). Eventually when the manager came back I gave her their
tab and said to screw the tip, she could deal with them, I was heading out.
So nothing major really happened, but I still don't know if I handled those
guys correctly. Do I shut them off in that situation, especially if I don't
have any kind of back up and one seems to be a violent drunk? Or was that
handled ok? Any help...thanks.